This invention relates to a novel and improved method and apparatus for cooking and smoking food, commonly known as barbecuing. Although not limited thereto, the present invention is particularly suitable to cooking with wood such as hickory logs, for example, to impart a certain desirable taste to the food.
Devices for cooking and smoking meats and related food products are well known in the art. They extend in size from backyard barbecue devices to large commercial barbecue pits and the like. An inherent disadvantage with most barbecue devices is that while the meat is being cooked and/or smoked drippings from the meat are allowed to fall into the fire, thereby causing undesirable burnt smoke to envelope the meat product and impart an undesirable burnt flavor thereto.
Other apparatuses, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,656,140 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,791, have attempted to eliminate this problem by providing shields between the cooking product and the fire, or situating the fire to the sides of the cooking product so that the fire is partially independent of the food being cooked and smoked. However, these apparatuses provide only limited control of the heat and smoke transmitted to the food product, and there still exists the likelihood that excess fat or meat-juice drippings will accidentally enter the fire and produce undesirable smoke fumes.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a cooking and smoking method and apparatus free of the above drawbacks.
A further primary object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for cooking and curing meat wherein the meat is uniformly cooked and retains all moisture and natural juices to impart the utmost in taste to the food.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a cooking and smoking apparatus wherein combustion is completely separated from the food being cooked to obviate undesirable fumes caused from food drippings entering the area of combustion. At the same time the apparatus permits the heat and smoke of combustion to be imparted to the food under regulation and control in order to impart a desired taste to the food.